{"id":645,"date":"2019-09-13T10:01:36","date_gmt":"2019-09-13T09:01:36","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blogs.bath.ac.uk\/business-and-society\/?p=645"},"modified":"2019-09-13T10:01:36","modified_gmt":"2019-09-13T09:01:36","slug":"ceos-political-stand","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.bath.ac.uk\/business-and-society\/2019\/09\/13\/ceos-political-stand\/","title":{"rendered":"CEOs who take a political stand are seen as a bonus by job applicants"},"content":{"rendered":"

What do you look for in a boss? New research by\u00a0Andrew Crane<\/a>, \u00a0Christian Voegtlin\u00a0<\/a>and Laura Noval\u00a0<\/a>suggests that we want CEOs to take a humanistic stand on social and political issues - even if we don't agree with them.\u00a0<\/em><\/p>\n

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Chief executives around the globe have become increasingly vocal about social and political issues. In the US, many have criticised Donald Trump\u2019s hardline stance<\/a> on immigration, including the bosses of Apple<\/a>, Google<\/a>, Starbucks<\/a>, and other major corporations.<\/p>\n

But what impact does this have on job seekers? Although we know that graduates and others are attracted to companies with sound reputations<\/a> and a positive ethical record, we know little about how people respond when individual CEOs take a stand on highly political issues.<\/p>\n

Our research<\/a> with job seekers in the US suggests that a CEO\u2019s stance does have an impact \u2013 and in a surprising way.<\/p>\n

We found that people are more than 20% more likely to want to work for a company where the CEO takes a humanistic stance on a political issue unrelated to their business. This effect is true regardless of the job seeker\u2019s age, education, gender or political orientation. And interestingly, the job seeker does not need to agree with the CEO\u2019s views.<\/p>\n

On an issue such as gun control, for example, people are much more likely to want to work for a company when the CEO stands up for greater gun control, regardless of whether the job seekers themselves support that stance. We see the same effect for other issues such as same-sex marriage and immigration. Employees want their CEOs to take the more liberal, humanistic stand \u2013 whatever their own position might be.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s not the case, however, that all activism will appeal to prospective employees. CEOs need to demonstrate the \u201cright\u201d principles.<\/p>\n

Our findings show that the positive effect of CEO activism disappears if the CEO becomes politically active to oppose humanistic values, such as when leaders speak up against same-sex marriage. People are more likely to want to work for a company with a CEO who takes no stand whatsoever than one where he or she comes out against such issues.<\/p>\n

What explains these findings? We believe it is because potential employees view the political stance of the CEO as a signal of how employees will be treated at the company.<\/p>\n

A CEO who takes a humanistic stance on a hot-button issue \u2013 irrespective of whether that position is shared by the employee \u2013 will be seen as an indicator that workers will be treated humanely should they end up working for the company.<\/p>\n

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Working environment<\/h4>\n

We also found that this effect was more pronounced when a female CEO engaged in political activism. This might be due to gender stereotyping \u2013 the expectation that a female management style is more often associated with attributes such as care or concern for others.<\/p>\n

Our research shows that people perceive activism as more congruent with the role of a female CEO. It seems that potential employees will implicitly expect women leaders to be more likely to speak up for humanistic values.<\/p>\n